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The Beginning (The Dragon Heart Trilogy Book 2)
Nora Roberts
14 hours, 30 min
Publishing Nov 23rd by Macmillan Audio
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About the Book:
A new epic of love and war among gods and humans, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Awakening.
The world of magick and the world of man have long been estranged from one another. But some can walk between the two–including Breen Siobhan Kelly. She has just returned to Talamh, with her friend, Marco, who’s dazzled and disoriented by this realm–a place filled with dragons and faeries and mermaids (but no WiFi, to his chagrin). In Talamh, Breen is not the ordinary young schoolteacher he knew her as. Here she is learning to embrace the powers of her true identity. Marco is welcomed kindly by her people–and by Keegan, leader of the Fey. Keegan has trained Breen as a warrior, and his yearning for her has grown along with his admiration of her strength and skills.
But one member of Breen’s bloodline is not there to embrace her. Her grandfather, the outcast god Odran, plots to destroy Talamh–and now all must unite to defeat his dark forces. There will be losses and sorrows, betrayal and bloodshed. But through it, Breen Siobhan Kelly will take the next step on the journey to becoming all that she was born to be.
My Review:
Having just finished Book 1 on audiobooks and not being really engaged with the story, I was hoping that Book 2 would be a better experience.
Unfortunately it wasn’t. The audiobook narration was great, just as in the first book. I enjoyed the accents and the narrator had a variety of voices for the different characters which made it easier to keep everyone straight.
I’m disappointed that I haven’t been able to find the comfort in reading a Nora Roberts story that I once did. Not sure if it’s me, perhaps my readings tastes have changed, or if it’s the writing. I felt like, as in book 1, there was way too much time spent on Breen learning how to fight with swords, too little time spent with anything dragon related and the lovely friendship with Marco felt really fake or forced…. not sure.
I loved how Roberts would build her relationships between characters in her past books. But Marco’s character is an over the top LGBTQ character that check marks all the normal gay stereotypes but has nothing underneath those flashy characteristics. Breen is also a very surface-level character to me and their relationship was very meh. Conversations consist of all the normal stereotype’s you’d expect of a straight woman/gay man friendship. Nothing new here. No depth of feeling or connection.
And while we are talking about connection…..it’s almost non-existent between Breen and Keegan. Disappointing.
As a summary, the narration is great! Love listening to the Irish accent here and there throughout the story.
The rest of the story was not up to the level I would expect from a fantasy trilogy or from Nora Roberts herself. I won’t be reading Book 3 as I’m just not that invested in the characters.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacMillanAudio for providing the ARC for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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